NCAA Tournament Predictions: Expert Picks, Fan Selections For 2016 NCAA Tournament Champions
NCAA tournament predictions and picks from experts and fans alike have come out. The 2016 NCAA tournament picks have been published on many websites, giving college basketball fans a lot of information to fill out their own brackets. Most predictions begin with the second-round games, which get started on Thursday, March 17. A report from CBS Sports reveals the schools that fans predict will win each round, leading to the 2016 Final Four in Houston, Texas.
The fan NCAA tournament predictions from CBS Sports have Michigan State, Kansas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma advancing to the Final Four. They then predict that Kansas will beat Michigan State for the national championship. There aren’t a lot of upsets when the NCAA tournament picks are viewed in this format, but some notable ones in the second round are No. 10 VCU beating No. 7 Oregon State, No. 9 Providence over No. 8 USC, No. 10 Syracuse over No. 7 Dayton, No. 9 Butler over No. 8 Texas Tech, and No. 9 UConn over No. 8 Colorado.
It would seem like the country doesn’t feel very strongly about the seven Pac-12 schools that made it into the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Only Oregon survives to make it to the Elite Eight, according to the fan predictions. So will the NCAA tournament predictions from the fans stack up well against what the college basketball experts are saying?
A report from Sports Illustrated reveals more NCAA tournament expert picks, with the college basketball analysts weighing in with their picks. Ten SI.com sports writers weighed in, with four selecting Michigan State, four selecting Kansas, and two selecting North Carolina to win it all. There was a very familiar theme with the Final Four predictions from Sports Illustrated, as most went with Michigan State, North Carolina, Kansas, and Oklahoma as the regional champions. Ryan Krasnoo picked Miami to win the South, making him the only analyst to not choose all No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.
Over at ESPN.com, 31 sports analysts submitted NCAA tournament predictions, giving their expert picks for the Final Four and championship. Eighteen experts predicted the Michigan State Spartans would win it all. Ten went with the Kansas Jayhawks, one with the Kentucky Wildcats, one with the North Carolina Tar Heels, and one with the Oklahoma Sooners. That Kentucky pick came from Jeff Goodman, who has a Final Four of Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Michigan State. The most notable Final Four pick was No. 5 Maryland by Jeff Borzello.
A report from SportsLine reveals the 2016 NCAA tournament predictions from simulating all the games. These picks were presented after the site “simulated every possible match-up thousands of times and the team that won over 50% of simulations was selected to advance.” They have Duke winning the West Region, Kansas winning the South Region, Michigan State winning the Midwest Region, and North Carolina from the East Region.
As for how the CBS Sports experts look in their NCAA tournament picks, most of the analysts are falling into the same line of predictions. Twelve experts predicted how the brackets will play out. Six picked Michigan State to win it all, three went with Kansas, two picked North Carolina, and one projects Oklahoma to win the title. Josh Nagel has some interesting upset picks. He feels No. 11 Wichita State will beat No. 6 Arizona in the second round, that No. 11 Northern Iowa will beat No. 6 Texas, and that No. 11 Gonzaga will beat No. 6 Seton Hall. In fact, he has Gonzaga making it to the Elite Eight in the Midwest.
From all the 2016 NCAA tournament predictions, many experts feel that the most vulnerable No. 1 seed is the Oregon Ducks. Despite winning the regular season Pac-12 title and then the Pac-12 Tournament, most college basketball analysts feel that Oregon will get knocked off by Duke or Oklahoma before the Final Four takes place. It clearly makes the team an underdog in a tournament where anything could happen. The consensus of the expert NCAA tournament picks is also that the Michigan State Spartans will be crowned as champions.
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